Rooster very sick, bumblefoot complications

[Worm94]

The floppy toes may indicate nerve damage. Time will tell if it's permanent.

Green tissue on the legs and feet indicate bruising.

Thank you for letting me know! It was not an ideal situation at all, honestly and I am just hopeful he's strong enough to recover from this and will do everything in my power to make sure he can.

The green bruising is most likely from squeezing, or a tight bandage. This is going to take awhile to ascertain whether or not he will lose any of his toes.

Yes, everyone here is super helpful and I am really grateful. Thank you also! I will continue with the soaks and be extra gentle with the re-wraps. He's asleep right now in his towel.
I'll definitely take more pictures as this continues, I am keeping my fingers crossed the damage isn't permanent.

 

[azygous]

There is every reason to believe your rooster will be okay. A bonus from all this will be a much tighter bond between you and your rooster.

 

[Worm94]

There is every reason to believe your rooster will be okay. A bonus from all this will be a much tighter bond between you and your rooster.

Thank you so much. A big part of why this has been so hard for me is because he's always been a sweet boy. He's spending today snuggled up with me just like yesterday. He sleeps a lot better with the motrin too.
Anyway an update, I do not know what to make of this either. Today I soaked his feet again in the epsom salt bath. When I dried them off to re-neosporin them and everything, it seems the skin is peeling off. There appear to be new scales underneath, no exposed flesh or anything.

I took two pictures, he was very squirmy and upset today. The spur is also loose.

Also the toenail and the skin on that toe appear to both be coming off. I did not mess with it, I just did the gauze and bandage very loosely again and I'll be letting him rest a bit before I bug him again for food/water.

 

[azygous]

Anything loose and easily pulled off, go ahead and remove it after each soaking. The loose tissue only traps bacteria. This is called wound debridement. It's highly recommended in animal wound treatment.

The loose spur can be given a final twist and safely lifted off. Underneath will be a fleshy nub. As he heals, a new hard spur will form over the soft nub.

 

[Eggcessive]

Continue to let us know how he is doing. I would slack off on the Motrin, since ibuprofen is hard on the kidneys, and not meant for long term use.

 

[Worm94]

Continue to let us know how he is doing. I would slack off on the Motrin, since ibuprofen is hard on the kidneys, and not meant for long term use.

Noted, I have not been giving him a lot but I will stop for now. He's sleeping a lot, understandably so. More skin came off after today's epsom soak, along with the spur that had not detached fully yesterday but has today. I don't have any pictures, but his toes remain limp. He is still eating and drinking. I wrap him in a towel every day and I keep him company and sometimes bring a chicken inside to say hello. He's eating a lot of scrambled eggs, a few oats, a few bites of apple here and there because he likes them. I may crumble up some all-flock pellets/mix them with the egg and give it to him also.

I have gained a deep fear of future bumblefoot surgeries though. Prior to this, like I'd said before we had done a few and they had all turned out fine/healed up within decent time frames. But with this, I feel so much guilt and fear for him that I don't know what I'm going to do the next time a chicken starts limping/has bumblefoot.

 

[ManueB]

Noted, I have not been giving him a lot but I will stop for now. He's sleeping a lot, understandably so. More skin came off after today's epsom soak, along with the spur that had not detached fully yesterday but has today. I don't have any pictures, but his toes remain limp. He is still eating and drinking. I wrap him in a towel every day and I keep him company and sometimes bring a chicken inside to say hello. He's eating a lot of scrambled eggs, a few oats, a few bites of apple here and there because he likes them. I may crumble up some all-flock pellets/mix them with the egg and give it to him also.

I have gained a deep fear of future bumblefoot surgeries though. Prior to this, like I'd said before we had done a few and they had all turned out fine/healed up within decent time frames. But with this, I feel so much guilt and fear for him that I don't know what I'm going to do the next time a chicken starts limping/has bumblefoot.

There are alternatives but they take a longer time. You could use a drawing salve after bathing the foot daily and rubbing the scab in the warm water. After a while the scab softens and you can pull it out with just your fingers or a tweezer and squeeze out what will come out. I've done that and it took a few months.

I also read recently a post where someone said their vet told them to gently rub an antibiotic cream such as neosporin with a tooth brush, so that it penetrates inside the scab. They were successful doing this. We don't have OTC antibiotic in any form here so I could not try it.

One of my hen has a recurring case of bumblefoot that is located on top of the foot. She had surgery at the vet, but after eight months it came back. I asked the vet about doing surgery myself with a chirurgical scalpel. I know many do that on BYC successfully , but the vet said there was quite a risk of infection, and also that it would be very painful for the hen. She is not really the kind to push toward bringing chickens to the clinic so I believe she meant it.

Try not to feel guilty ; you did what had worked fine before for you, and what many chicken keepers do with no issue. I'm also taking this as a reminder that surgical intervention should be carefully thought about. Even if we do the best we can, I can't have the chickens in a completely sterile environment.

 

[HorseDad]

Worm has been giving updates in here about our sweet boy, Goose, but this is not a happy update. Thank you all for your help so far, but we're afraid we might lose him with this new development.

New and very scary update on Goose— he is self amputating and the bone in his lower leg is exposed. He is still eating and drinking, and he is still VERY sassy, but we are incredibly worried about him as this is a new development. Last night his foot did not look like this, it looked a little raw and rough, but there was no BONE exposed.

Tagging you guys, @azygous and @Eggcessive , in hopes you'll see this quickly.

This morning as we unwrapped the bandage to give him another soak, this is what we saw:

 

[alinas2010]

Were you able to locate an antibiotic maybe leftover from another pet or human?

I hope that experts have advice that can help.

 

[Worm94]

Were you able to locate an antibiotic maybe leftover from another pet or human?

I hope that experts have advice that can help.

We have some amoxicillin from a human. It's 875 miligrams per pill. The chicken is toweled again. He had some treats this morning, some apple and a bit of all flock feed.